"Good Night Yoga" - Mariam Gates

I met this author at the American Library Association Convention in San Francisco last summer, I have a signed copy of the book(!), and it's pretty adorable.

As a children's librarian, one of the basic programs we offer is Storytime; I was responsible for the school-age children. Jump topic, I hate dancing in public. Now, most storytimes include a music & movement element. To avoid it, I replaced the dancing with a short yoga sequence that told a story through the poses. (I thought I was clever but whether I was or not, it was a lot of fun!)

Read Also:

You are a Lion! and other fun yoga poses by Taeeun Yoo emphasizes animal poses to do with children.

Doreen Cronin's Stretch follows a dog through many different poses (downward-facing dog!)

Janet S. Wong's Twist: yoga poems is cleverly done with colorful artwork that illustrates the pose described by the poem.

I Am Yoga by Susan Verde but with my favorite illustrator! Peter H. Reynolds.

"Dusk" -Uri Shulevitz

Dusk is my favorite time of the day, I've read Shulevitz before, and the cover was attention-grabbing...

A boy, his grandfather and his dog walk through the city of New York as dusk sets in during a winter evening. The sounds of the city, the people, the buildings all contribute to a cold and glowing stroll.

Gorgeous illustrations really give the feel of light glancing off the snow and the cold setting in. I remember evenings like this and love the memory!

Read Also:

Sarah Thompson does an "Imagine a ..." series which includes Imagine a Night.

Ari Berk's Nightsong.

"Red & Yellow's Noisy Night" -Josh Selig

Nothing like a huge grin and a scowl to make a book look interesting...

Red wants to play his guitar and Yellow wants to sleep. Watch how they display their sides and compromise to a solution.

I chose this book because of grinning Red and the "don't talk to me" look on Yellow. It had to be cute, right? It was a great book about disagreements and resolutions. The artwork was fun and vivid. The Olive Branch is part of the Little Light Foundation whose goal is to promote conflict resolution.

Read Also:
The Berenstein Bears - (despite problems with Mother Bear) this 1980's series of books focuses on different areas of life and how a family and each individual in the family need/can help the situation be better. Love'em!

"Nightsong" -Ari Berk (Illustrated by Loren Long)

Love me some picture books! And because I do, I included the illustrator of the book Nightsong by Ari Berk because the artistry is why I picked it up in the first place. It's a simple story of a young bat's first flight and using his radar to fly in the dark. As cute as the story is, the illustrations were gorgeous!!! They were soft and deep with contrasts between light and dark. Just beautiful! (My vote for the 2013 Caldecott award.)

Read Also:
For various reasons, try Bats at the Library by Brian Lies
Akiak: a tale from the Iditarod by Robert Blake
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (a Caldecott winner).